This invention relates generally to tobacco and tobacco treatment and, more particularly, to treatment of tobacco leaves such as stripping the leaves from stalks.
A tobacco leaf stripping apparatus of the type using a pair of side-by-side, counter-rotating nip rolls, included a pair of wire guide members for guiding the tobacco leaves to the nip of the rolls to be stripped from a stalk of a tobacco plant.
The wire guides are limited to their ability to properly guide leaves to the nip of the rolls since leaves sometimes fall within the loop formed by the wire guides and thus are not properly fed to the nip of the rolls.
Also, when on occasion a tobacco leaf sticks to one or both of the rolls, the rolls must be stopped and the leaf manually stripped off.
The foregoing illustrates limitations of the known prior art. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations as set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is to provide a guide for a leaf stripping apparatus which guides the leaves to the nip of the rolls and, in the event of leaves sticking to the rolls, the guide is capable of automatically stripping the leaves from the rolls.